For our last weekend of summer 2018, we planned a camping trip to Chong Kemin National Park. We had been to this location back in June and had met some really great local friends that told us about some beautiful horse treks in the region. Indy brought some of his Taigan Expeditions' clients here in July and when he came home told me, "Yes, we need to go back, it's lovely!"
The weekend got cut short though by an accident with our pup, Vera. Turns out being raised in suburbia, away from horses, has got her a bit anxious and excited about these larger animals. Our local friend brought up 5 horses, plus the one he was riding, and Vera was not thrilled. She started jumping and barking and wouldn't go with us on our horse trek when we were sure she would follow right along as she does on hikes and other walks. In her exuberance, she jumped on our tent, breaking one of the plastic extension poles. Indy tried to fix it and another pole broke. We really liked these easy pop up tents, but the lighter weight, plastic poles aren't as sturdy and now we're afraid we're without a tent. It put all of us in a foul mood unfortunately and we had to pack up on Saturday evening and head home to Bishkek. We learned a few things about grace and forgiveness though, so for that we're thankful for our time out in Chong Kemin.
Our little corner of the wilderness with our tent all set up.
There were so many different kinds of wildflowers, I just couldn't stop taking pictures.
Purple in my color, and this area was covered in purple wildflowers.
Part of the path we took to get up to our campsite.
The tall trees surrounding where we camped.
Our puppy, Vera, now 8 months old and weighing 53 lbs.
Yeah, yellow, a different color from purple.
Walking around the valley, you can see Vera on the path on the left, following the kids. I was always falling behind to take pictures.
A view from our horse trek.
Cresting this hill and looking down in the valley was just beautiful.
Indy stayed behind to clean up the camp site and the kids and I went on with our friend for a couple of hours of horse trekking.
A family driving up in the mountains for a day trip.
There they go, down the hill to return to the village.
The dark trees on the hillside reminded me so much of Colorado.
Sissi took this and many more pictures. She likes to take close ups and layer her photos. I might have her do a post at some point sharing some of our photography.
